Home - East Dean and Friston Parish Council

Next Parish Council Meetings

Parish Council - 6th October

(No council meeting in September)

Planning Committee - 16th August.

Recreation Ground

Pavilion bookings are now being taken for the summer season (subject to availability). For more information click here. The open area of the Rec. remains fully accessible for exercise and the tennis court and play area are also open, but you are urged to comply with Government recommendations regarding keeping safe.

Community Services within the Village

Charity of the year 2022/23

Churches
Cuckmere Community Bus route 41
Community Watch / Neighbourhood Watch
Emergency Plan
Residents' Association
Tree Warden
Village Directory (at Aug 2021)
Village Hall

Village website

Who Looks after What?

Quick Links

Your Councillors

Finance Meetings

Full Council
Planning
Neighbourhood Plan Steering Group

Welcome

Welcome to the East Dean and Friston Parish Council website. We hope that you enjoy browsing it and finding out more about our village and its council. We always welcome feedback from our site visitors, so if you have any comments or suggestions for improvements then please let us know via the "Contact Us" link.

What's new?

Latest Update - 5th August 2022

Support for Ukraine: The Parish Council, together with our local church, Residents Association, Community Watch and other volunteers are working to provide support to residents who wish to host refugees from the conflict in Ukraine or help in other ways. Further information can be found on our "News and Information" page or by clicking here. It has now been announced that around 1200 refugees are due to arrive in East Sussex, with Wealden District expecting to accomodate some 500. More information on this can be found here.

South East Water have announced a hosepipe ban for Kent and Sussex, to take effect from Friday 12th August until further notice. According to the Met Office, July saw the lowest rainfall in Sussex since 1911. Further information can be found on the South East Water website by clicking here.

The most recent Parish Council meeting took place on Thursday 4th August in the Village Small Hall, The agenda can be found on our "Council Meetings" page or by clicking here. The minutes will be published shortly.

Cuckmere Buses announce reduced fares: During August and September, Cuckmere Buses are reducing their fares on all routes, resulting in an adult day ticket being available for £5 with children able to travel for £1. Further details can be found by clicking here.

Neighbourhood Plan Steering Group: The Parish Council wish to restart the group,following its suspension due to the Covid pandemic, and have appointed four councillors to form the nucleus. They are now looking for four lay members to volunteer for this. Further details can be found on the PC notice board or by clicking here.

The most recent meeting of the Planning Committee took place in the Village Small Hall on Tuesday 19th July,. The minutes can be found on our "Council Meetings" page or by clicking here.

Annual Audit: We are pleased to report that the annual internal audit of the Parish Council accounts has now been completed with no adverse comments from the auditor. The accounts will now be passed to the government appointed external auditors and their report should be completed in the next few months. A notice of public right to inspection, together with the audit summary has been posted on the council notice board and is also available in our "On-line library" page or by clicking here.

Annual Village Meeting: After a two year gap due to the Covid pandemic, it was great to welcome over 60 residents to the Village Hall on 20th May for the Annual Village Meeting. The evening included presentations by local clubs and societies, as well as a chance to question Parish Councillors. The minutes of the meeting will be published shortly. For pictures of the event go to our "News and Information" page or click here, and for the draft minutes, go to our "On-line library" page or click here .

Jevington Road Closure for Gas Main replacement change to dates: Details of the proposed closure to through traffic of the Jevington Road (C40) have now been revised and can be viewed by clicking here. The first phase will now go from October to the beginning of December this year. Despite objections from the PC and residents, this is deemed necessary for safety purposes. The contractors have, however, said that the total closure at all times is a "worst case" scenario and they will try to keep the road open as much as possible.

The Parish and its Council

The Parish of East Dean and Friston is located between the south coast towns of Seaford and Eastbourne, situated on the southern edge of Wealden District in the County of East Sussex and within the South Downs National Park. It is a relatively large rural area, comprising the village of East Dean and Friston, together with the smaller hamlets of Birling Gap and Crowlink. The A259 main coast road passes through the Parish with the old village to the south and the newer parts of the village (known as the "Downlands Estate") to the north. The Parish is primarily residential, covers an area of 3.3sq miles and consists of some 760 households with a population of around 2,200.

East Dean Village is centred around the Village Green with its war memorial, medieval church and long-established inn, “The Tiger”. To the North-West of the village, as the A259 ascends Friston Hill, is the area known as Friston, which was originally a separate village with its own church at the top of the hill.

Birling Gap is a coastal hamlet with a long shingle beach, backed by the famous Seven Sisters cliffs and not far from Beachy Head. The Birling Gap visitor centre and cafe, and some of the surrounding land is owned by the National Trust.

Crowlink is a small hamlet grouped around a manor house; in the 18th century it was a haven for smugglers of Gin that became known as "Genuine Crowlink". It was also once the home of the Edwardian author, Edith Nesbit, whose best-known work is “The Railway Children”.

Parish Councils were formed in England under the Local Government Act 1894 to take over local oversight of civic duties in rural towns and villages. Before this date a variety of groups based around ecclesiastical (church) parishes had responsibility for these matters, in a system of local government that originated in the feudal system of the 8th century. The establishment of Parish Councils effectively separated church from state and today's councils are totally secular in nature and independent from the Parochial Church Councils that deal with the administration of the local Church of England places of worship.

Following the 1894 Act, both East Dean and Friston began Parish Meetings (not council meetings) and East Dean then formed a Parish Council in 1924. The Friston Parish Meeting merged with East Dean to form the East Dean and Friston Parish Council in 1948.

Parish Councils are the first tier of local government and have limited variable tax raising powers. The component part of the Council Tax, which comes to the Parish Council, is known as the Precept.
Parish Councils are responsible for areas known as civil parishes, and there are approximately 9,000 Parish Councils in England. East Dean and Friston is one of those civil Parishes. Although there is nothing to prevent Parish Councils being political in nature, the current East Dean and Friston PC members are all independent of any party political sponsorship. The current Parish Council was elected in 2019 and is due for re-election in May 2023.